As online shopping gained popularity over past decades, the number of brick-and-mortar malls in the U.S. declined from around 25,000 in 1986 to approximately 1,150 today, with an average of 1,170 malls closing every year from 2017 to 2022.
Although the retail landscape has changed, these properties’ desirable locations, ample parking, and sturdy structures often make them smart investments as adaptive re-use projects. Preserving the steel, concrete, and other materials makes sense from a sustainability perspective, too.
These four shopping center conversions show how thoughtful development can save money, conserve resources, and rekindle the past prestige of old malls.
Austin Community College District Highland Campus, Austin, Texas
Photo: Dror Baldinger FAIAA vibrant community has arisen on the site of the former Highland Mall in Austin, Texas. Austin Community College District (ACC) repurposed the mall’s 800,000-square-foot windowless shell into a learning hub, and developer RedLeaf Properties replaced 80 acres of parking lots with apartments, shops, parks, trails, office space, and restaurants.
By dividing the shell and removing parts of the roof, designers created an open-air pathway or “paseo” that welcomes the community to venues like the theater, arts gallery, and a culinary arts center. The paseo includes a history wall that honors the site’s past as an African American Baptist orphanage and vocational school that operated from the early 1900s until 1942. “We felt like it was important to honor the history of this land and show how it’s been a special place for learning for a long time,” Malcolm says.
In keeping with that educational tradition, the college offers innovative training facilities centered on the needs of Austin’s workforce, including health science simulation centers, music recording studios, animation studios, and entrepreneurship labs with incubator spaces for bioscience, fashion, and advanced manufacturing.
WeStreet Ice Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Photo: Adam MurphyCreative design and engineering transformed a former Macy’s department store into WeStreet Ice Center, an ice-skating rink and entertainment center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “We wanted to build hockey and have more fans and more players,” says Andy Scurto, owner of the Tulsa Oilers, a professional team in the East Coast Hockey League. “That effectively meant that we needed more ice.”
Expanding the only other existing ice rink in Tulsa was unfeasible, and the location of the Macy’s, its adjacent parking garage, and its multi-story shell presented an appealing opportunity. By replacing massive structural columns with long-span trusses, the design team created an interior that’s bright and open, with easy wayfinding and clear visibility between on-ice and off-ice areas. WeStreet now serves as the Oilers’ practice facility, and its rinks are accessible to the public when not in use by the team.
In addition to two ice rinks, the center has a 350-seat bar and grill, party rooms, an arcade, pro shop, locker rooms, and seating for more than 1,000 spectators. It offers lessons and league play for youth and adults in hockey, curling, and broom ball, as well as figure skating lessons and open rink time.
NexusPark, Columbus, Indiana
As the Fair Oaks Mall in Columbus, Indiana, went into decline, city leaders worried that it might be converted to a big-box store or other undesirable “We were concerned that it would become something we didn’t want,” says Mary Ferdon, mayor of Columbus. Given the mall’s structural solidity, plentiful parking, and proximity to an existing sportsplex, the city and the regional health system decided to purchase the building and renovate it as a health and recreation center.
“It started as a notion that we wanted to control what was happening in our community, and we found a lot of desire to promote wellness in different ways,” Ferdon says. The city’s portion of the retrofit includes an indoor fieldhouse; administrative, activity, and community spaces for the recreation department; and shopping and dining. Columbus Regional Health also built medical and wellness offices. The city’s portion of the retrofit includes an indoor fieldhouse; administrative, activity, and community spaces for the recreation department; and shopping and dining. Columbus Regional Health also built medical and wellness offices.
They called the project NexusPark and set up a community development corporation to manage it. The first health clinic opened in late 2023, the recreation center opened in spring 2024, and a two-acre park with walking trails is in the works.
UT Southwestern Medical Center at RedBird, Dallas, Texas
Photo: Leonid FurmanskyUT Southwestern Medical Center at RedBird is an anchor tenant at The Shops at RedBird in southern Dallas, repurposing a former Sears department store as a haven for healing. A new courtyard cuts into the building’s boxy facade, bringing light and greenery into an outpatient primary care and specialty clinic that provides infusion therapy, advanced imaging, cardiology, neurology, and primary care.
It’s a welcome investment in an area that has been historically underserved. “In Dallas, the average lifespan is significantly lower south of I-30,” says Peter Brodsky, Dallas-based developer and visionary behind the Redbird project, referring to the interstate that divides the city’s wealthier north side from its less-prosperous south. “A big part of that is lack of access to diagnostics. UT Southwestern really focuses on diagnostics here, so illnesses can be detected and treated earlier.”
The clinic is good for the area’s economic health, too, bringing well-paying professional jobs. Other developers are taking notice of RedBird’s success, and area residents appreciate the attention.
